Friday, April 05, 2013

A decade of stupid

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said that the United States should be
prepared to launch a pre-emptive strike "right now" against North Korea,
warning that its "deranged" president Kim Jong Un could attempt a
nuclear attack on America...

“In terms of the capability we have out there with the F-22s and the
battleships … a pre-emptive strike from something like that would get
their attention.’’

And as a self-proclaimed "born-again Christian" what clearer explanation of WWJD than bombing somebody first.

"Our intelligence system has said that we know that Saddam Hussein has
weapons of mass destruction -- I believe including nuclear. There's not
one person on this panel who would tell you unequivocally that he
doesn't have the missile means now, or is nearly getting the missile
means to deliver a weapon of mass destruction. And I for one am not
willing to wait for that to happen."

Yeah, Inhofe's an ignoramus, fringe-dwelling back-bencher who is properly greeted with pointing and laughing.

Trouble is, on this topic, I hear his point of view in the popular media a LOT more than I hear responsible voices. I don't think there's a dearth of sober-minded people observing the scene with North Korea; but patience and deliberation aren't nearly as sexy as the prospect of war. And we all know that sex sells.

Just a reminder: NK has a per capita GDP of around $1000 (some of the best-paid people in NK work in the enterprise zone making cheap clothing, and they make maybe $1800/yr). NK doesn't have the generating capacity to keep the entire country supplied with electricity at one time. Even though they put over 30% of GDP into the military, that still doesn't amount to much more than $6 billion/yr. Malnutrition is widespread, so much so that the NK military recently revised its minimum height requirements downward, because new inductees weren't meeting the standard.

But, this is a country that represents an existential threat to the U.S.? NK is, politically and culturally, one of the most isolated countries in the world. It's no wonder that its military thinks that some saber-rattling will work, because they're utterly clueless. They have no idea what they're up against. That's even more reason not to return their threats in kind, or to taunt them. They're desperate, and desperation makes people do stupid things.